P-22 is a famous mountain lion that helped inspire the construction of the massive Wallis Annenberg wildlife crossing over the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles. After the passing of P-22, lifelong wildlife advocate, Beth Pratt has worked to spread awareness of the importance of wildlife crossings in urban spaces, saying, “The most fitting memorial to P-22 will be how we carry his story forward in the work ahead. One crossing is not enough – we owe it to P-22 to build more crossings and connect the habitats where we live now.”
This brings them to their current mission and journey: exploring 11 wildlife crossings across America and sharing with the world the possibilities of creating safe passages for wildlife. Among Beth’s team is National Geographic photographer Steve Winter, writer Sharon Guynup, and ARC Solutions’ Renee Callahan and Marta Brocki, who we had the honor of meeting during their visit to the first wildlife bridge in the Sonoran Desert on September 16th, 2023.
The Oracle Road wildlife crossings, both a bridge and underpass, were constructed in 2016 to increase wildlife connectivity between the Catalina and Tortolita Mountains. It was a pleasure to share our success story with them and we are honored to have been a part of their journey!
You can see a video of our field trip to the Oracle Road wildlife bridge at this Facebook post.
You can also visit https://savelacougars.org/crossingsroadtrip/ and experience real-time updates about the full road trip by following Beth Pratt on Facebook and her Twitter Account.
